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Old 07-29-07, 12:17 PM   #15
Rockin Robbins
Navy Seal
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: DeLand, FL
Posts: 8,900
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Default Hunt for mass tonnage?

Arrrrrrrrrrr! Gave em the slip. Hey, next time a Zero crashes in your neighborhood, can you get me one of those Mitsubishi tachs? Oh yeah, I couldn't use it anyway because I left my metric screwdriver in Pearl. Guess I'm stuck with these Oldsmobile tachometers. I couldn't read metric RPM or whatever they use anyway. I was onboard one of those Limey subs and their tachs said "REVS." Keep me away from those things too.

OK, I'm up here on the surface taking a shower again. Radar says Superpoop is a mile away and not moving. It's mighty tempting to go see what I can do with him but I have a shade over 15,000 tons and 8 stern torps left, one in tube 1 up front. I have half a tank of diesel. "Mass tonnage" will never come up when talking about this cruise. Seems to me the uber-AI results in much more realistic tonnage per patrol. Of course you could cheat and return to Midway for refits to extend it. In R/L Admiral Lockwood would have something to say about that.

No sign of any tractor beams or phazers. The destroyers can be dealt with and survival is not that difficult for me. Of course I'm trained on GWX where there are no thermal layers and the U-Boats are slower running silent at 1 kt instead of the American Gato's 2 kt at quietest speed. I'm not going to change a thing because I'm just having too much fun. I'd say if you're getting killed too much you ought to work on your tactics.

Remember, when the destroyer is pinging, he's not listening. Pinging is your signal to hit the throttle and maneuver yourself quickly to a new hidey spot at a different depth and get back to silent running. Pinging does not mean he necessarily knows where you are, either. Inaction is fatal here. Keep twisting. Vary depths with the realization that deeper is better most of the time.

When the charges hit the water, remember his stern is now facing you. Do a radical turn and hit the throttle because you're in the clear for a bit. If he's on top of you dropping ashcans and you sit there, your patrol is over. He can't hear you, he can't ping you right now. Hit the jets and get out of there. After a short spurt, go back to silent running again.

If there are two or more destroyers you can be sure that at least one is always backed away listening. That means much shorter bursts of power reluctantly used only when survival is in the balance. Stay deep, quiet and zigzag like the drunken sailor you are in Pearl. Your goal is to put both destroyers back of bearings 135/225 and the angles progressing toward 180, showing you are leaving them safely astern.

Remember you are moving. When the bearing to the destroyer stays the same, that means you would be on a collision course if you were on the surface. In this case it means that he is either moving straight away from you or is going to pass right overhead. There's a freight train a'comin'. Try to change course to see if his bearing then begins to change, showing he will pass ahead or astern. If the bearing does not change, he's following your turn. Then you have to time the drop and run out from under it as the ashcans fall.

Ducimus, you're the expert! Anything to add? Am I making you want to get out here? I can tell you one thing. RFB is gonna have to wait. This is too much fun.

Last edited by Rockin Robbins; 07-29-07 at 01:19 PM.
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